On May 7, at Bellator 258, Juan Archuleta will live out a career goal of being a defending Bellator champion. However, he has grown frustrated in recent months with his new role and its place on the Bellator pay scale. Especially, since a few big-ticket free-agent additions to the roster are pulling in bigger salaries than him at an event he is headlining.
Juan Archuleta on pay frustration
“When you’re the champion of the world, and you see people on your undercard getting paid three times more than you, you’re starting to ask questions to yourself, four or five weeks before your fight,” Archuleta told MixedMartialArts.com. “These guys are bragging about how much money they’re making. You’re just [left] scratching your head like aww f***.“
Those “people” referenced by the champ are Ultimate Fighting Championship imports Anthony Johnson and Yoel Romero. The co-main event combo at Bellator 258, and one-quarter of the promotion’s light heavyweight grand prix. “The Spaniard” understands he must take responsibility for agreeing to his current deal. Yet, he believes that being one of only eight champions on a roster of a couple of hundred fighters should mean elite pay for elite status. And he doesn’t mean winning a grand prix tournament and getting a million-dollar check at the end. Like the promotion has done in recent years. He feels champions should be getting US $1 million for each fight.
“I’m in this business to make money, and they got guys on my card that are making three times more than I’m making as a champion,” says Juan Archuleta. “That are fighting on my undercard. If they want me to be tied down to a tournament then we’re going to have to sit at the [negotiating] table again. I just feel like it’s unfair a little bit. But it is what it is. I signed a contract that put me in a deficit in being a champion. I think our sports making good enough money now where if you’re a [major] champion in this sport, you deserve to make a million dollars a fight.”
Juan Archuleta
Archuleta on self-promotion
A common complaint from many fighters in the sport is a lack of a strong and consistent marketing push from their promotions. However, during the conversation, the 33-year-old insinuated that some in Bellator management have commented on his lacking in the self-promotion department. Archuleta is fine with putting more work into growing his personal brand. As long as he is paid to take time away from training to do so.
“Listen, I’m not a promoter. If you want me to do my job, and go in there and fight I’ll do it. But if you’re to say my following is weak then pay me more money so that I can be my own promoter,” he said. “That’s what’s a little bit frustrating is [complaints about] your following, and this and that. It’s like, well you’re the f***ing promoter, what do you want me to do? You want me to train, promote, sell tickets, do this, do that, okay. Pay me the money to do it and I’ll do it. Like Conor McGregor, you give him the money to promote, he’s going to go out there and get in people’s faces [and] promote the fight. It just goes to show, how they treat their champions is not kosher everywhere you go.”
Juan Archuleta
As for his championship main event inside the Mohegan Sun Arena in a few weeks, the Californian has much respect for his opponent Sergio Pettis. He sees the former UFC flyweight as a dangerous foe with experience beyond his years.
“He definitely has a lot he brings to the table. He’s young age-wise; I believe he’s still in his 20s, but he’s a veteran in the sport. He’s been fighting since he was 18 or 19-years-old,” says Archuleta. “He’s been through big fights in his career and he’s fighting for a world title. This is his chance to make a stamp on his career. He’s definitely dangerous, poised, and looking to keep building his name and resume off me.”
Archuleta: The two belts Spaniard
In 2019, when Archuleta first started dipping his toe into Bellator’s bantamweight division, he had emphatically called for a bout with then division champion Kyoji Horiguchi. It is a fight Archuleta still pines for today. Mainly because the Japanese star had completed a rare feat of being a bantamweight champion for both Bellator and RIZIN at the time. Now, as only a RIZIN champion, Archuleta still has an interest in the fight. However, considering how difficult it’s been to make, the current 135-pound Bellator king has pivoted his goals from a clash with Horiguchi to a chance at any RIZIN champion near his weight.
“It sucks waiting around for him because that was a fight I was supposed to [have] in March. There was just no word from them. Obviously, with COVID there’s a lot of restrictions going on, but we were hoping to make that fight happen. I wanted to be that second person to hold two different promotional belts at the same time,” he said. “It’s like the Khabib [Nurmagomedov] and [Tony] Ferguson fight. Sometimes it gets away from you. I would have loved to have been in the grand prix in RIZIN. If Kyoji never fights in MMA again, then hopefully I can get someone that has a title for RIZIN.”
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